The Betting and Gaming Council active in the United Kingdom has just recently called on Rishi Sunak who is the Chancellor of the Exchequer to remain to be rather flexible while supporting the United Kingdom’s regulated and licensed online betting and gambling industry during these rough times. Needless to say, the United Kingdom gambling and betting industry is one of many negatively affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
These days, the UK iGaming industry starts to emerge from a massive raft of lockdown measures that were put into place to combat the spread of the highly-contagious coronavirus strain. In one of its latest official press releases, the London-based organization represents around ninety percent of bingo, casino, sports betting and other gaming operators across the United Kingdom.
Its officials used a press release to proclaim that all of the organization’s members’ land-based gaming operations have been temporarily shuttered since the 20th of March. These measures led by the UK government were crafted to prevent the spread of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic which as of the 1st of June killed 38,400 local residents.
Details About the Betting and Gaming Council
The Betting and Gaming Council active in the United Kingdom is the leading casino gambling industry association for online casino operators, sports betting operators, land-based casinos as well as betting shops, and other entities. In other words, the BGC is the single industry organization or association that represents online gaming venues, as well as land-based casinos and others.
Today, it represents over ninety percent of the entire United Kingdom gaming and betting industry which is an industry that contributes over £14 billion to the United Kingdom economy as well as employs 100,000 individuals. As mentioned on the organization’s official website, one of the main goals of the Betting and Gaming Council is to champion both land-based and iGaming industry standards in order to ensure safe, fair and enjoyable gaming and betting experiences for all customers.
The Betting and Gaming Council also sets some of the highest gaming standards in the world which when combined build institutional and public trust in the gambling industry through the organization’s codes of practice and code of conduct which were carefully crafted to always ensure safe, reliable and fair gaming and betting.
Extra Assistance for the United Kingdom Gaming Industry
Rishi Sunak who is the Chancellor of the Exchequer replaced Sajid Javid on this position after a cabinet reshuffle which took place on the 13th of February of this year. His response to the coronavirus outbreak in the United Kingdom included the initiation of his Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme that saw the UK government pay around eighty percent of workers’ wages worth up to £2,500 per month.
The Betting and Gaming Council was rather pleased with this move which has helped over 64,000 workers in the United Kingdom related to the nation’s gaming and betting industry. In another related press release, the Betting and Gaming Council proclaimed that the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will remain active until August if companies pay their workers’ pension contributions and National Insurance. According to the Betting and Gaming Council, this curtailing will probably cause the government’s worker wage commitment to drop to seventy percent in September before falling to sixty percent in October.
The Betting and Gaming Council’s Chief Executive Officer Michael Dugher said in one of the latest organization’s press releases that many of the nation’s land-based casino venues will operate at a highly reduced operational capacity as they re-open following the coronavirus-induced lockdown. He also added that the Betting and Gaming Council is ready to help these facilities stay afloat and the organization is hopeful that the government will help as well.
